Superhero CITY - The Test

Chapter Nineteen

"That is just him being crazy, right? There is not really any one out to get me is there – not personally, I mean?"

Andrew shook his head, his dark eyes becoming stormy with emotion. "I'm afraid not. Dust has been after our team and everyone related to us as long as you have been alive. She is the one who killed your Aunt Jo, and the was the one who went after your mother when you were eleven."

"So why go after me, I'm not connected to you or my birth father? You guys made sure of that."

"Because you are still posing as Jo's son."

I swore a rather filthy profanity under my breath at the logic behind his words registered in my mind full stop my dead aren't had been the safest connection to go public with that would actually allow me still to remain close to the rest of my family. But it seemed there was still someone that wanted to kill me because of her.

It seemed rather abstract and strange in my mind because my Aunt Jo Had been unusually loved for a hero in the global villain society. One such example was the man that had put her in the hospital after their fight when my mother was in her later stages of pregnancy. The villain had actually sent my aunt flowers and an apology note when it was released that I was her child, and believed that her time in hospital was when she was the one pregnant with me rather than my real mother.

Andrew side and squeeze my shoulder in comfort before continuing, a single eyebrow still raised high at my creative display of language. "This information does not mean anything, it is nothing new to us. She has been trying to eliminate you for years and never even came close. You don't need to change anything or even really think about it. The only real difference is that now you have an identity behind your kidnapping and assassination attempts in the past. Which, I reiterate, none of them came anywhere close to succeeding. And I highly doubt that it will change."

"Then why tell me all of this? Why tell me that my estranged dad is here to protect me if I don't need it?"

"Because he needs it."

"What do you mean by that? I am not seeing any sense in what you are saying right now. I'm not getting it."

"Because he is losing more of himself every year. These days, almost the only times he sounds coherent are because he is either plotting deviously or talking about you and Blade. You don't even need to talk to him, but by guarding you he is kept busy and I have got more time to figure out how to help him without getting into any confrontations."

I bit my cheek. A battle where my father was involved – either one, really – was the last thing we needed. Especially when he was a level seven with the necrophilic Ability to command all of the nearby reptile souls and give them solid astral forms. Think of an unnaturally intelligent dinosaur ghost army that could literately bite; Jurassic Park where the Indominus Rex actually followed orders.

"So I don't need to actually see him? Don't need to talk to him?"

"He is going to approach you at some point, we can't avoid that. But he is not allowed to whilst the competition is going on, so not until after your last match is over."

I took a deep, shuddering breath, my inhale slow and uneven as I tried to calm down. Sorting through my emotions, I was surprised at how many and strongly I was feeling them. First was numbing terror at the upcoming assassination attempt, which no matter how my stepfather tried to put it, was being taken as a very serious threat by the fact that I was told anything about it at all. Then there was enough nervous anticipation that I was attempting to avoid fidgeting as I thought about seeing my birth father again for the first time in almost twelve years. I was so pissed off that I was seeing red at the fact that I could not just be allowed to concentrate on preparing for my oncoming trials the way all of my peers could. And I was deeply saddened by the confirmation that my father even if he had not been in my life for over a decade was incapable of loving me the way I had wanted, the way every child always wanted, so secretly that until now I had hidden it from even myself.